For hundreds of years, there was a stigma surrounding periods: from 73 AD when the primary Latin encyclopedia implied that contact with menstrual blood would mean “crops turn into barren”, “fruit of trees fall off” and “hives of bees die”, to the current day where tampon tax still stubbornly stays casting tampons into the category of “luxury.” Periods are still in lots of cases a taboo, so Moody Month is here to vary that.

Founded by Amy Thomson, Moody Month is a mood and hormone cycle tracker designed to assist women higher understand their bodies, filling the void of female produced, female-focused technology. The tech company built by women, for girls, was created with the concept our moods shouldn’t be suppressed or seen as a taboo, due to this fact reclaiming what it’s to be “moody.”

Hoping to evolve into the go-to space for girls’s health, Moody month is an area to “log and learn”. By inputting data about your mood and cycle into the app, Moody Month provides personalised advice based in your monthly rhythm. Additionally they offer an enormous vitamin and complement range that might be used based on their findings.

Pioneering positive period relationships for all, Moody are striving to attach as many ladies as possible with their hormones and cycles. Here, founder Amy Thomson shares her story.

Tell us about Moody Month.
Amy Thomson, founder: Moody Month is a mood and hormone cycle tracker that helps you connect with the fluctuations of your cycle and changes in your every day wellbeing and higher take care of your body. Moody’s mission is to assist women understand and own the ability of their moods, hormones and body. We offer knowledge, tools and space where all can feel heard. By encouraging all to support not suppress moods we’re reclaiming what it means to be moody.

What led you to want to begin Moody Month? Where did the concept come from?
Amy Thomson: Moody Month got here after a private experience, my periods stopped as a consequence of stress, travel and burn out that got here in consequence of several years of labor scaling my events agency in London. I started on the lookout for help, information and answers and was struck by the ignorance or tools for girls to look at and take care of their unique health patterns. I used to be aware of the period tracking tools around but there was nothing that helps you see the gaps or connect the causes from a 360-degree health perspective. More importantly, there are so few solutions to support how women live and make personal well-being simpler and more accessible.

What did you’re thinking that was lacking within the industry that you must address?
Amy Thomson: There was a void in technology built for girls and by women. Technology allows us to democratise the science and experience of hormone cycles. Not so we will solve it, but so we will allow women to higher understand the ability of their bodies through knowledge. There’s a lot science that isn’t being shared within the mainstream and we wish to handle this. Technology is a vehicle for delivering that message.

What are you hoping to attain with the brand?
Amy Thomson: Connecting as many ladies as possible with the ability of their hormones and cycles. The knowledge that understanding how your hormones work every month, gives you latest found productivity and fewer guilt. Allowing women to be more productive and tuned into themselves.

What type of warning signs do our bodies give us?
Amy Thomson: Your moods and symptoms every month are signals. By understanding and tracking the common patterns, you’ll be able to begin to note when things feel out of whack. While you take heed to your body, it unlocks a latest language of moods and symptoms that assist you to navigate if you end up feeling best and worst.  

There was a stigma surrounding periods for hundreds of years and across many cultures. Why do you’re thinking that that is?
Tara Scott, head of content: I feel it comes from a fear of ladies’s power, creativity and sexuality. Throughout history and across cultures we’ve seen all types of practices, whether it’s extreme violence like FGM or microaggressions like raising children with gendered toys, which manifest a message that girls/girls, and our bodies, are dangerous, dirty or sinful. After we step out of the angle of social-constructs, it’s laughable that something so normal, natural, and integral to life may very well be shrouded in a lot taboo.

Some people view self-care as a feminist act, do you agree with this?
Tara Scott: 100%. For hundreds of years a girl’s role has been to nurture and support their children and husbands, prioritising the needs of others over themselves. So learning to properly take care of ourselves, and make our emotional and physical health a priority, is foundational feminism to me. How will we take over the world if we’re not on our A game?

What do you see as the connection between women’s periods and their self-esteem?
Tara Scott: Culturally, we see many ladies open up enthusiastically when in a protected space to debate their experiences. There’s a collective feeling of ‘it’s not only me’ and for some, they’ve been inside their head worrying about issues and idea of normal for years.

At a physiological level, women may even see connections between how good they feel mentally and physically at different points of their cycle, this might be different for every woman depending on the symptoms they experience and after they feel at their best. We hope with understanding more women will know what works for them and give you the option to support these patterns.

Has technology affected the best way women approach their periods?
Amy Thomson: Yes technology has allowed women to start to know their period and higher organise their life with their cycles in mind. We imagine the longer term of health, is allowing humans to higher understand themselves through the vehicle of technology. Your period and hormone cycle is a terrific start line for this.

Why do you’re thinking that we’re culturally becoming more open to talking about periods, especially in relation to women’s mental health, wellness, self-esteem?
Amy Thomson: Society is opening its eyes to a male bias, that has dominated societal norms. If men had been bleeding every month for the previous couple of centuries, then sanitary products can be free like toilet paper. Sadly it’s 2019 and only now are latest voices breaking through. Nonetheless, it’s vital we don’t speak about periods just as a political movement, but as a barometer for all women to higher understand their bodies and structure for listening to themselves. We have to be listening to a lot of female voices about how we will move into an era of higher health, wellness and emotional intelligence. Understanding your period is a terrific place to begin.

What are the most important misconceptions about periods and ladies’s menstrual/intimate health on the whole?
Amy Thomson: We see plenty of misinformation being circulated by women of all ages. We might say the concept of ‘normal’ worries many ladies unnecessarily, everyone seems to be different and the main target ought to be on what’s normal for the person, observing changes for you is what is useful not comparing.

That we’re unclean or unattractive, often a dangerous concept is that we want to detox our intimate areas with lotions, washes or worse. There was a rise in cosmetic surgery which is concerning. Also, that lifestyle isn’t connected to our periods or reproductive health. Stress, weight loss plan, sleep and activity all contribute to our bodies overall health. We want to support all our systems and functions or we are going to notice changes to our menstrual cycle, digestion, skin and sex drive all effective by our hormone health.

How do you must challenge these?
Lola Ross, co-founder and nutritionist: So many misconceptions are simply about lack of awareness and due to this fact, starting period education within the classroom from an early age, across all genders, combined with the shedding of taboos that surround menstruation and intimate health can be useful. Celebrating this natural, life-giving physiological event that almost all women experience, in addition to acknowledging that many ladies don’t have periods for various reasons, from problematic ovarian cycles, to hormonally-driven vaginal imbalances,  is crucial in difficult misconceptions. There’s a really progressive reproductive health centre in LA called LOOM that runs PERIOD ROADMAP sessions for teenagers and adults, providing evidence-based information on the important thing features of the ovarian cycle, explores ovarian cycle conditions and offers an area to bust myths around periods. I really like this idea and the way amazing would that be to have this rolled out to adolescents and adults?

How has social media modified the pressures and expectations on young girls?
Lola Ross: Social media has been a terrific  source of comfort and inspiration for young girls in some ways because it has given women and girls a platform to share experiences, connect with others who’re going through similar challenges and help normalise and break down taboos around anything, from having period leaks in public to the challenges of living with endometriosis. Conversely, social media brings about other pressures and expectations for young girls to be a certain way, so I’m keen for the federal government, parents and the community to support young girls in using social media in a constructive way that contributes to well-being slightly than negativity and low self-worth.

What would you prefer to see Moody Month evolve into?
Amy Thomson: The go-to space for girls’s health. We wish to maneuver the conversation and science forward while constructing the solutions women want to higher support their well-being. There are such a lot of gaps in knowledge each from a science and lifestyle perspective around hormones and cycles, reminiscent of reproductive health, mental health, trans women and transition, menopause and conditions reminiscent of endometriosis and PMDD.  

Why did you select to have the vitamin/complement aspect of the brand?
Amy Thomson: We are usually not exclusive to vitamins and supplements, but we had to begin somewhere with a business model that didn’t depend on selling data. We desired to make the natural support and solutions to common monthly symptoms reminiscent of bloating, water retention and headaches more accessible. Most ladies, including myself, have been confused by the quantity of products available, so we began by just curating the very best products available on the market — the shop is curated by our nutritionists and doctors. Having a nutritionist is a big luxury and we wanted more women to have access to this source and the knowledge they will provide.

Moving forward are you hoping to branch out into other products? What’s within the pipeline for Moody Month?
Amy Thomson: Our plan is to listen. Constructing a business that relies on asking the audience what works for them and the way we will bring higher mainstream solutions to common monthly experiences. There’s never going to be a magic pill to resolve all the things, but there needs to higher access to information around what routines and rituals might help support a healthy monthly cycle.